Basic information on the spoken languages and the educational system:

Latvian

The Latvian language belongs to the Baltic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the mother tongue of 1.5 million persons. Starting in 1918, when independance of a sovereign Latvian state was declared, and continuing until the Soviet occupation in 1940, the Latvian language was formed into a well-developed, multifunctional language with an established system of styles and developed terminology.

During the era of Soviet rule, Russian was the unofficial state language and enjoyed special privileges compared to Latvian. In most places of employment, it was not considered a drawback if a worker knew only Russian. At the same time, it was practically impossible for a Latvian to not know Russian. Nevertheless, Latvian as a native language is more common (52%) than Russian (42%). Thus, the majority (approximately two-thirds) of Latvians are bilingual, but only 23% of non-Latvians know Latvian in addition to another language.

In 1988 Latvian regained its status as the state language in Latvia. The 1989 Language Law (amended in 1992) restored the place of Latvian in the national economy and in social life. After renewal of independance in 1991, changes have taken place in the language situation of Latvia. The main goal of language policy is integration of all inhabitants in the context of the official state language while protecting and developing the languages of Latvia’s minorities. Recognising the problems inherent in society, the Latvian government launched programmes for the teaching of Latvian. In the year 2000 about 75% of Latvia’s minorities acknowledged that they possessed some Latvian language skills.

The Law on State Language was adopted on December 9, 1999. Several regulatory acts that refer to this Law have been adopted. The State Language Centre of the Ministry of Justice monitors the observance of the Law.

The only recent language data are materials on the language used in the family, which may correspond to the native language figures cited in census data. Of all registered inhabitants, 58% use Latvian in the family, 37% use Russian, 4% use both languages, and the rest use other languages. Among citizens, 78% speak Latvian in the family and 18% speak Russian, while only 8% of non-citizens speak Latvian and 84% speak Russian. Among individual minorities, only a majority of Lithuanians (55%) use Latvian in the family, while Roma generally (74%) speak their native language. All the other principal minorities usually use Russian at home.

Currently it is possible to study 8 minority languages in Latvia. Presently there are 6 Polish schools, a Jewish school, a Lithuanian school, an Estonian school and a Ukrainian school working quite actively in the Republic of Latvia. There are 180 state financed Russian schools and 19 private Russian schools, as well as 147 bilingual schools in Latvia. There is also a trilingual school in Liepaya, where Latvian, Russian and Lithuanian children study.

According to statistical data more and more children and their parents show their interest in receiving education in the Latvian language lately.

Websites: